Nothing really stood out about the Avengers novel, although there was a fun bit when they summarized every member to date.

I still remember Hank McCoy reluctantly getting hooked on Cap's Perry Como records.

Second in a series!  It claims.  Unfortunately, it was LAST in the series, too.  One of the characters in it is carried over into regular comics in a DC Comics Presents Annual.

I had a friend in school who loved comics, but hated reading regular books.  He borrowed my copy of Last Son of Krypton and convinced his english teacher to allow him to use it as a subject for a book report.  He got an "A", and let me read it afterwards.  He didn't read the book.  He wrote the report as if the book were a novelization of the first film, using that and his knowledge of Superman's origin from comics to write his review.  When I told him that the book was different than the film he kinda freaked out and got really paranoid that the teacher would happen upon the book and take back his grade!

I've known other people to agree with your statement about the gunon the Captain America cover.  Personally, I have always felt that Captain America would have used a gun of some sort in WW 2, as he was a soldier.  I don't think that it belongs in his stories after the "thawing", though. 

Most of the 70s books were written VERY fast and for very little money -- Wein and Wolfman (who packaged the series) wrote the first Spider-Man book in two weeks.  The Captain America book was reportedly written over a weekend (the pseudonymous author was actually sf/mystery writer Ron Goulart, a real speed demon).  WIlliam Rotsler (who also wrote a Blackhawk novel) was a long-time SF fan and a fixture of the "adults only" (not XXX) film industry -- he did publicity photos for scores of movies and directed a bunch as well, including one set in Harlan Ellison's house.  Reportedly, he did his comics novels because he was in a real cash crunch for medical bills.  Rotsler was a prolific cartoonist, as well.

The Binder Avengers book is the first published Marvel novel.  Ted White had actually made the deal to do his Cap book first and may even have turned it in first, but he and Binder were talking to different people in the Marvel heirarchy.  I like the Cap book quite a lot, and it hews fairly closely to then-continuity (though since superseded).  White expands upon Cap's origin considerably and the whole thing reads very much like a mixture of Doc Savage and James Bond. Cap was quite willing to kill some of the early T.O.S. stories, so I didn't find the machine gun business that odd.  I've always thought White had the right appoach to this sort of thing -- shorter book, pulpish plot, naturalistic detail, and when the action comes, it's brief and realistic.  (My experience is that long fight scenes work better in the comics than in prose.)

The Superman books came about in part because DC didn't have novelization rights for the movies (part of Puzo's contract).  The first one had been on the shelf and they put it out to try to capitalize on the movie; the second one was commissioned pretty much to the same purpose.  With the third movie, DC HAD the rights and didn't need to do originals.  Maggin went on to co-write a Generation X novel and novelize Kingdom Come, in the 90s.

Michelinie later co-wrote (actually, plotted) a 90s Spider-Man novel and wrote a Spidey short story; I think that's it for his prose sales.

<<Has anybody read them recently, as an adult?  With some objective distance?>>

I re-read the Hulk "Stalker from the Stars" a few years back, and for something that looks like it was written by committee (three authors), it held up well and was lots of fun. Kinda like H.P. Lovecraft's concepts get their butts kicked by the Hulk!

JP:  "Pierce, thanks for the info.  I have four of your Marvel novels that were written for Berkely.  Do you, or will you have anything coming out for Pocket books line, that is currently re-starting, or anything for the DC Universe line from Warner?"

Well, I have some feelers out, but nothing definite so far.

By the way, I actually did five books for the Berkley/Boulevard line -- all three of the Spider-Man team-ups were written by me over outlines Danny Fingeroth  and Eric Fein.  The rotating credits thing was due to editorial policy, and the subject of much frenzied discussion.